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My Planned New Build..


Flyboy583

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Wow Snacko, that card rates right up there still. I would not bother to upgrade for a while. Try this: load RoF and start a quick mission. Load 15 planes on both sides and start the game. See where your frame rates (using Fraps) comes in at the center of the furball. As a reference, my Core i7 920 with an HD6970 2gb @ 1920x1200 gets 25-45fps in one of those dust-ups, especially near the ground over a city. RoF is both a test of your CPU and GPU as an older GPU with a newer CPU will get better frame rates than will a newer GPU with an old CPU. Case in point: I have a Core i5 2500k with my old HD5850 sitting here running RoF in that mission, it gets 5fps (average) better than does my Core i7 920 with an HD6970.

Here are my graphics settings in RoF:

post-588-0-52197600-1316537732_thumb.jpg

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Thanks, I'll give that a try...

I had to reduce my settings in RoF last week due to bad FPS. It may have just been lag or something.

I am suprised that card still rates up there being over 2 years old. I tried to OC it a few times and it locked up after just a little OCing. So, I just gave that up, and it was getting fairly hot as well..

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Hi All,

Sorry to be a bloody pain...

I am just updating my list (making sure I have found the best pricing on the net for all the different components ) and have a little problem....

I have found various models of my motherboard..

They are all Asus and all appear to be the same but with fluctuating pricing..

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/search_results.php?sortby=&groupid=&search=Asus+P8P67+REV+3.0+LGA1155+Intel+P67+DDR3+ATX

This is the board I am looking at

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-446-AS&tool=5

Just want to make sure I buy the correct board!!

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They usually come with one. But you should consider a better one at some point for sure... :thumbsu:

I thought that mine would but it didnt :( So I bought this Its very big and might have an issue if you have tall memory (I did and had to cut off the top of my heatsink)

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Hi guys,

I suddenly had a thought last-nigh.. Will I need to buy a Heat sink (Fan) for the CPU or is one included in the box??

As I will most probably overclock the CPU at some point should I consider a better heat sink and Fan?? What about better cooling for the system like liquid cooling? Your thoughts?

I would seriously consider water-cooling, especially with Intel procs. I built my own several years ago using various parts easily available on the internet. I'm actually an AMD fan and the fittings haven't changed since Skt 939, so that's a saving. The advantages are many:

1. A water-block doesn't get in the way of anything. If anything it really improves the flow of air around the case.

2. It keeps the CPU that you paid so much for at a lower and more constant temperature so that it will last longer and give better results

3. Water-cooling is quieter than air-cooling. Fewer fans are needed to keep the case cool and the radiator fan doesn't need to be fast or loud.

4. Nowadays you can buy a pre-assembled watercooling set from Antec, Corsair and even Oc UK for around £50. Simples.

B :thumbsu:

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The Core i5 2500k that I just built for a buddy came with the fan (you can check on the ad where you buy it from if it does, if it is an OEM chip usually not but if it is a retail chip in a blue box then yes it does) and they do a fine job of cooling the CPU even under mild overclocking conditions. He CPU ran at 28c idle and no more than 42c under load (four simultaneous Prime 95 programs running, one for each core). Very very cool running CPU. I used water cooling in the past and it is great for keeping the CPU cool if you need it, in this case I doubt you will. I had to downsize my case due to desktop space restrictions (these three monitors take up a huge amount of space) but here is the case with water cooling that I was using with my Core i7 920. This is my Steampunk solid brass and cherry case:

http://www.overclock.net/case-mod-work-logs/468160-project-serenity-another-wooden-case.html

For now, I would recommend just using the stock fan until such a time as it proves not to keep up with any overclocking that you do, this will keep your budget happy.

David

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  • 4 months later...

Flyboy,

I have a very similar rig to what you are contemplating:

Asus P8P67 Pro Rev. 3.0

i5 2500k (OC to 4.3 GHz)

AMD 6970

8 GB DDR3

Win7 home 64 bit

450 GB VelociRaptor

and I'm very happy with the performance.

For what it's worth, that overclock to 4.3 GHz is on the STOCK Intel cooler and has been absolutely stable for over half a year... not a single hiccup. In fact, I have OC'd the CPU past the 4.5 GHz level but the temps climbed up to 80 celsius (still well within the operating parameters, but there's no need to push it). However, there really is no need for me to OC the CPU anymore... everything is extremely smooth at 4.3.

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[snip]

This is the board I am looking at

http://www.overclock...B-446-AS&tool=5

Just want to make sure I buy the correct board!!

[pasted]

That is NOT the right board! That is the MicroATX board (note the suffix -M) so unless you're planning to fit this into a MicroATX case you do NOT want that board.

You would probably be fine with the plain-Jane P8P67 board to save some money. Basically you'd be giving up an e-SATA connection (one instead of two), a PCI x16 slot, and Intel LAN support... otherwise your board will be the same as the -Pro I have... I've never actually used those features and so I basically overpaid.

Asus is a solid Mobo company. The overclocking utility made my OC a breeze... literally click of a button and it does it for you.

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A couple of things.

RAM

you don't need special RAM, even when overclocking, on sandy bridge systems.

The reason is rather simple. The frequency you set in the BIOS will stay the same no matter what you do (BCLK, the base clock, is now fixed). Unless you have a locked (non K) CPU that is. So 2500k, 2600k etc. are all good.

Sandy's can run 800MHz, 1333MHz, 1600MHz and 1866MHz - above that things are tricky.

You won't see any noticeable real world performance improvements beyond 1333 with okay'ish timings. So if you're on a budget invest into your GPU and skip deluxe RAM.

Soundcard

Since Vista dedicated soundcards are kind of useless, especially if you're using TOSlink for audio quality. Yes, dedicated soundcards are sometimes better shielded and might have better pre-amps and other enhancements but it's not worth it if you're on a tight budget. Avoid software soundcards by the way!

With Windows 8 things will change again it was announced. Right now it's not the very best idea to invest into a dedicated soundcard if you're on a budget though. I'd skip it and wait what will happen with Win 8.

Misc

The rest of your setup seems to be decent and some dogz made good recommendations. I won't go into the GPU debate because much of that depends on the game you play / benchmark and personal preference. Generally it is recommended to invest into the CPU and GPU. In your case you have a pretty strong CPU already so invest as much as possible into the GPU. If things are tight you can always overclock the CPU (since you wisely picked a K version). It doesn't mean buy the most expensive GPU but buy the most bang for the buck you can afford. Also I'd recommend a dedicated CPU cooler and a 120mm case fan to help sucking hot air out of the case.

For UK pricing I recommend to look them up on http://skinflint.co.uk/

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Whatever anyone does or has done, one thing to keep in mind is you can get away with a 650 watt power supply but you need to make sure that the 12 volt rails are capable of supplying 31 amps (for the 560ti at least) or you will have problems. Whatever card you go with you need to check the amperage draw and then get a PSU capable of supplying it. Getting an SLI or Crossfire certified supply should be sufficient but it doesn't hurt to check.

Nvidia does have 3D Vision which allows you to (with the proper monitor(s)) use 3D glasses for added depth perception. You'll need to get a monitor capable of 120hz for this feature to work though. I had and old GeForce 2 GTX Deluxe that had 3D Vision they called Stereotopic vision at the time and it was pretty awesome when playing Operation Flashpoint. Nvidia also has Physx which will enable some added features in a few game titles though it does come at a small cost of a performance cost when enabled. Nvidia also does have 3 monitor (3D vision capable) support as well they call "Surround" but hear it works best if all 3 monitors are the same make and model. You will also need either 2 GTX 560s or a GTX590 but looks like the performance will be better. http://www.xbitlabs....a-surround.html

As far as drivers go, I was a big Nvidia guy and always herd about how much better the drivers were then for ATI. I Went with ATI that last time and was very impressed with the 3rd party ATI tray tools utility available. There were a few issues with drivers from time to time but I found ATI (at least since that point in time) to be no slower the Nvidia with driver releases. I have since gone with a MSI Twin Frozr GTX 560ti 1GB and instantly overclocked it to 950Mhz core, 1900Mhz shader clock and 2200Mhz memory clock which gave a fairly nice performance boost with nominal temperature increase. My card can easily handle 1Ghz on the core but there is no need for it as it manhandles everything I throw at it and my GPU will bottleneck before the card does. I decided to take the extra money I would have spent on 3 22 inch monitors and get one giant 27 inch instead. It looks great, gave me some more vertical and actually saved me a few bucks too. I'm running a dual monitor setup and it is great for desktop work.

I was considering going the Eyefinity route this time around but I've used it before and to tell you the truth I really only use the center monitor anyways even with TrackIR. The 2 side monitors are nice for peripheral vision but I found they have to be angled 20+ degrees for my liking. Also the monitor bezels create black lines between the monitor and it always kinda bothered me. There are seamless monitors available but they are way overpriced right now so until they come down considerably I'm holding off on the Eyefinity. Believe me though once I can get about 13 inches of vertical with seamless wrap around at a reasonable price I'll be all over it but right now getting rid of the bezels is just too expensive.

@BigEnk, funny I've had an issue before with an Asus motherboard not being compatible with an Asus Video card. I'm not opposed to using Asus but still think they are overhyped.

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